We are standing at a tipping point. Private technology businesses were forced to reevaluate the way they met customer needs when the tech bubble popped in 2001. This reevaluation led to an increase in innovative digital services like being able to order a pizza from your phone. Consequently, people’s expectations for what digital services can do skyrocketed, and the private sector quickly rose to that challenge, outpacing government in using digital services to exceed a user’s needs. Users now recognize a major difference between industry and government’s abilities to take their needs into account.

What can we do to bridge the gap between what citizens need and government provides? This course offers an answer: to learn the needs of stakeholders, and construct acquisition plans that will get the right digital services to meet those needs. You’ll learn not to fear the FAR and the best practices for using it.

By taking this course, you will watch four video lessons to learn more about digital services, understanding stakeholders, creating product visions, and building acquisition plans. Then, you’ll apply what you’ve learned in two interactive lessons.

Thank you to the Knight Foundation for this public sector resource.

Additional special thanks to Public Spend Forum and subject matter expert Frank McNally.

GovLoop Academy offers free, practical and impactful online learning experiences to GovLoop’s community of more than 270,000 federal, state, and local government innovators to help them do their jobs better.